


Steps in time

by iwasanartist



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Gen that could be read as pre-slash if it suits you, Memories, Pre-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Tony is a good friend, mentions of Howard Stark - Freeform, mentions of peggy carter - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-14
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-22 16:37:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14312814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwasanartist/pseuds/iwasanartist
Summary: "Yes, yes. Your super-special-soldier metabolism won't let you get drunk. Until now." Tony passed the clear liquid down the couch. Bruce sniffed the drink as he passed it and immediately coughed."Tony, what is this, jet fuel?""Mmmm...it could probably fuel a jet."





	1. Turns Out You Can Get Captain America Drunk

“Stark, I appreciate the gesture, but I’m telling you, there’s no point.”

"Yes, yes. Your super-special-soldier metabolism won't let you get drunk. Until now." Tony passed the clear liquid down the couch.

Bruce sniffed the drink as he passed it and immediately coughed.

"Tony, what is this, jet fuel?"

"Mmmm...it could probably fuel a jet."

Steve took took the glass and gave Tony a humoring glance and a shake of his head before downing the first shot in one go, leaning forward and setting the upside down glass on the table with a thunk.

“See?” he said, before almost immediately cocking his head. “Oh.” His brow furrowed slightly. “That’s interesting.”

“Have another.”

* * *

“Thanks, Howard,” Steve mumbled before falling face-first into mattress and rolling over.

“Tony,” Tony said with a grunt as he grabbed Steve under the arms and hoisted him up the bed frame until he was sitting, with his legs dangling off the edge. Steve just squinted at him, making a face.

“Steve,” he said slowly, gesturing at himself. “How drunk are you, man? Did you get into Erskine’s good stuff? I thought *I* was wasted.”

“Whatever you say, buddy,” Tony said with an almost-laugh as he untied Steve’s shoe and tossed it into a corner. The other came off easily, and he unceremoniously dumped Steve’s legs back into bed and tossed a blanket over them. Steve was half asleep already and Tony was about to leave when he noticed the askew buttons on his shirt, pulling at the threads and stretching the fabric.

Tony had a lot of clothes. He could probably wear something different every day of the week for the next five years, and a stain may as well be the end of the line for any given garment. Steve’s closet, on the other hand was sparse. Maybe, _maybe_ , two weeks worth of clothes, and Tony had once caught him standing over a sink hand-scrubbing wine or sauce or blood out of a shirt that was already fraying at the hem. He’d bet his life that -- in addition to being a super soldier with a mean Ultimate Frisbee game -- Steve was just as handy with a needle and thread as he was a gun and shield.

But still. The guy worked hard, and there was no sense making him spend his first hangover in 70 years -- maybe ever? -- reattaching buttons.

Tony had undone the first and second buttons and was working on the third when Steve inhaled sharply, turned his head and laid a hand over his. His eyes creaked open.

“Not getting fresh with me, are you, Stark?” he asked through a dopey smile.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Good,” Steve said through a yawn. “’Cause, I was talking to Peggy, and she said you got married.” Steve brought a hand to Tony’s face, cupped his cheek and gave a gentle, playful shove that Tony couldn’t help but laugh and smile at.

“Yeah, okay,” he said as he went back to work on the buttons.

“Not only that, but you’ve got a _kid_ ” Steve continued.

“R...really?” Tony’s hands froze over the buttons. He’d been trying not to pay too much attention to Steve. It was weird being confused for his father, and the ramblings of a drunk man were hard enough to follow when memory lane wasn’t cobbled together across two centuries, but now he couldn’t help himself. “What else did she say?”

“Only that you won’t shut up about him. T...immy? Tommy?”

“Tony.”

“Yeah! That’s it! Why’s that sound so familiar…” Steve looked around the surroundings, trying to find his place in the world.

“I don’t know,” Tony said as he hastily went back to the buttons, drawing Steve’s attention back to them as well. “What else?”

“MIT at 15,” Steve said, “I tell you, I was lucky to be in high school at 15. And I’m no dummy, but your kid? She said you were real proud. Finally had someone who could keep up with you. Probably lap you a few times before it’s over.” Steve leaned forward and pulled his arms out of the sleeves before staring down at his hands. “I think it’s great, Howard,” he said. “I’m really happy for you.”

His words were slow and low and Tony’d been around enough drunks -- and certainly been drunk enough himself -- to know they were quickly veering into a danger zone, and all he wanted to do was get out of it.

“That’s great, Cap, thanks,” he said quickly draped Steve’s shirt over a chair and pushed on his shoulders until he’d scooted down enough to lay his head on the pillow. “I think you’re all set here.” Tony flipped the switch on the lamp, leaving the room aglow with just the moonlight. He’d almost made it when Steve’s arm snaked out from under the blanket and grabbed his wrist.

“Thanks, pal,” he said. “I mean it. You take good care of me. ... I really missed you.”

“That’s almost hard to believe,” Tony said softly. Very little of what Steve had said jived with Tony’s memory of Howard Stark. He wanted to believe that Howard was proud of him and regaled an old friend with tales of his youthful genius, but when the only source was an old woman with Alzheimer’s and a drunk super soldier, well. It was hard to believe. He tried to extricate himself from Steve’s grip, but he just held tighter.

“ Hey, ‘member that night you were running those last tests before the big day?”

Tony stayed silent.

“We were just talking and you said you felt out of time. Built for the future but stuck in the past. I get that now.”

“What do you mean?” Against his better judgment, Tony lowered himself onto the edge of the bed.

“I don’t belong here,” Steve mumbled. “Relic of the past, stuck in the future. Got nothing that was mine and no one to share it with.”

“What about the Avengers?”

Steve smiled widely, the light from the window bouncing off his white T-shirt and glinting off his teeth.

“They’re great,” he said. “Real nice, probably the closest thing to family I got. But it’s not the same. I miss...everything. Everything that was and coulda been. Can’t be. Y’know, Peggy doesn’t remember me most of the time? S’alright though. She lived a good life, full of love. Better to ‘member that. And you, too.” Steve yawned heavily. ‘Even after the serum, you both always got the jump on me.”

“Well, sounds like we just need to find you a lady friend,” Tony said. “Or a guy friend, it’s the 21st century; I don’t judge.”

Steve snorted and rolled over to face the window, away from Tony.

“I may not be short and skinny anymore, but I don’t think anyone’s lining up to date the 96-year-old virgin who still can’t dance.”

Okay, wow. Tony filed a third of that statement away in the back of his brain and focused on the rest.

“First off,” he said, “You’re only technically 96. And second, you were cutting a pretty ferocious rug out there, my friend.”

“Pshhh.” Steve said. “That’s not dancing. That’s hopping around in a crowd like you’ve all got ants in your pants. Dancing’s graceful. Two people, hand in hand, gliding across the floor like nothin’ else matters and no one else’s there…”

Steve’s words trailed off as his breathing became slow and regular. Tony watched him for a moment before carefully rising and heading for the door.

“Goodnight, Cap,” he whispered, almost certain he he heard a mumbled “ G’night Stark,” as he pulled the door closed.

Tony was halfway to his room when he detoured to his lab. His mind was racing and he knew if he tried to sleep he’d just end up staring at the ceiling or calling Pepper, and what time even was it in Hong Kong? Didn’t matter. He figured he could lose himself in the latest design on the Mark Whatever for a couple hours until tiredness set back in.

But as he sat at his work bench staring at the mesh rendering of his next suit, absently rotating it on all axes with his thumb, he knew his heart wasn’t in it.

“JARVIS, pull up the SHIELD file on Captain America,” he said. He wiped the suit and its specs away as a one-page document with about a dozen bullet points appeared. “No, not the highlights, the whole thing.” The pages disappeared and were replaced with a stream of files that circled the workstation, leaving Tony smack in the eye of a Captain America storm.

“Whoa. This is way more than Coulson dropped off.”

“Your father kept meticulous records on Project Rebirth,” JARVIS said. “Most were confiscated by the government, but ‘your little bug’ on Director Fury’s ship re-acquired the collection.”

“Huh.”

Tony circled the area. Missing, of course, were Erskine’s notes on the super serum -- those died with him -- but there were reams of blueprints, specs, equations and doodles for a “Vita-Ray” contraption. There were enlistment papers, military reviews, and physical and psychiatric evaluations not just for Steve but for every man in the project.

Tony swished and swiped all the extraneous soldiers’ information away. He didn’t really care about Buford Tannen III or his possessive, overcompensating rage issues, after all, and soon all that remained was the data relevant to Steve.

It was still an impressive amount.

He wasn’t kidding about being short and skinny. One smudgy document listed his pre-serum biometrics at 5-foot-6 and 120 pounds. And if the first picture was anything to go by -- a head-and-shoulders shot of a stoic kid positively drowning in the fabric of a T-shirt -- that should have been amended to “120 pounds, soaking wet in full tactical gear.”

But none of this was what Tony was looking for. He swept away all the textual documents and re-assessed the much smaller canvas. Two photographs grabbed his attention. In the first, that scrawny kid with Steve’s face was bent over a checkerboard staring intently at the pieces. On the other side of the table, Howard was leaning back in his chair, a cigarette in one hand, a newspaper in the other and a drink surrounded by stacks of black checkers on the table. This was the apathetic Howard that Tony was used to, and he couldn’t help but feel a little bit of schadenfreude over the second photo.

Steve -- arms bulging out of an impossibly small T-shirt -- sat in front of a chess board, his elbows on his knees and his fingers steepled in front of his face as he gazed at Howard with a look of utter amusement and just a touch of glee. Howard, his hair very unartfully tousled and brow furrowed, boggled at the board. Tony didn’t really care for chess, but even he could see Steve was two moves away from a decisive victory.

The next file was a video. There was no sound, but some enterprising young soul -- possibly a Stark Pictures intern -- had spliced footage from three or four different cameras together. Skinny Steve hopped on and was strapped to a giant table. A man -- had to be Erskine -- tapped on a microphone. Tony was about to have JARVIS read his lips and manufacture audio when he glimpsed Howard in the background.

He looked nervous. He hid it well, but Tony knew he’d worn that same expression himself over the years -- a carefully schooled detachment for a man who was anything but.

The scene cut back to the table. Restraints studded in sharp needles settled down over Steve’s arms. Tony could practically see the kid’s heart jumping in his chest. Erskine laid a hand on his shoulder and the contact seemed like a soothing balm as Steve took a deep breath and his eyes eased closed. Vials emptied and Steve’s face twisted into a grimace. Erskine spoke and Tony watched as his father lowered a lever that made the entire table rise up and close around Steve like a tomb.

Technicians connected hoses and flipped switches, but Tony’s eyes were fixed on Howard as he turned a valve, tossing words over his shoulder as a blinding bright light filled the room.

Something must have been going horribly wrong. Erskine pounded on the capsule, support staff ran around the background, and even his father looked a little panicked as he jumped from the valve back to the master control switch. But something stayed his hand, and Howard turned back to the capsule with a look of pure determination, consequences be damned, that Tony had seen before -- hell, he’d worn it before, too -- and strode back to valve, cranking it all the way open.

“JARVIS, pause,” Tony said. He reversed the feed until Howard stared back at him. Jaw set. Hair perfectly coiffed. Unwavering dedication. “You’re a real son of a bitch, you know that? For someone who was supposedly this great friend, you sure were willing to give him up to science.” Tony rubbed at his eyes. Something wasn’t right. “JARVIS, why isn’t there any audio with this?”

“An explosion in the observatory shortly after the experiment destroyed the audio recordings, sir.” JARVIS said.

“Is there a transcript? Witness accounts? Anything?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Pull it up, run it side-by-side.” Words appeared next to the video as Tony wound it back and started again at the midpoint.

_**H. STARK:** That’s 50 percent. … 60 … 70 ... _

_**S. ROGERS:** [SCREAMING]_   
  
_**A. ERSKINE:** Steven!_   
_**P. CARTER:** Shut it down!_   
_**A. ERSKINE:** Steven!_   
_**P. CARTER:** Shut it down!_   
_**A. ERSKINE:** Kill the reactor, Mr. Stark! Turn it off! Kill it! Kill the reactor! _

_**S. ROGERS:** NO! Don’t! I can do this!_

“Pause.”

Howard stared at Tony. Not at him, really, but at Steve, enshrined in one of his creations, begging to see the work through, even if it killed him. Desperate to mean something to the world. Just like him. Tony looked at Howard and saw not pride or arrogance, but respect.

“Play.”

The light grew brighter. Sparks flew from the control panel, and Howard raised a hand against them, but otherwise stood unmoving, unable to take his eyes off the capsule until everything dimmed. Emergency lights turned as the capsule opened, revealing the slab of man Tony knew Steve as. Even in low light, filmed on old as dirt cameras, Tony could tell Steve was sweaty and exhausted from the transformation.

A technician was standing by, but Howard shoved him out of the way as he and Erskine approached Steve, each draping an arm over their shoulders and helping him down. On Howard’s face now? A look of admiration and utter awe. Tony let the recording run as Agent Carter entered the frame, almost unable to restrain herself from touching Steve’s new body. He watched as an explosion showered glass into the lab, a man shot Erskine, stole the last vial of serum and ran, taking two hits from Carter’s gun as he went.

He tried not to watch as Steve knelt over his mentor and friend. Erskine jabbed a finger at Steve’s chest until his strength left and Steve, barefoot and armed with nothing but himself gave chase. Tony knew from previous experience with the SHIELD files and Steve himself that that was enough. It was enough to stop the serum from reaching Hydra scientists. It was enough to single-handedly mount a rescue of the 107th division from deep in the heart of Hydra territory, and it was enough to take down Red Skull and save New York.

Tony didn’t know what Erskine had said. The transcript was blank. The camera didn’t catch his face as he died. For all he knew, there were no final words exchanged between Steve and the man who made him a superhero. Tony looked away. For all the silence of the room, seven words from years ago echoed in his brain.

_”Don’t waste it. Don’t waste your life.”_

Tony sniffed once and rubbed at his eyes before swiping the video away. Most of the other documentation went with it. There was just one small square left that grabbed his eye.

“What’s this?” he asked JARVIS.

“Personal files of your father’s” JARVIS said. “Records indicate it took SHIELD three weeks to break into it.”

“Personal files? Like, 80 percent of this is his personal stuff.”

“So it is, sir.”

Tony shook his head before reaching for the square.

“All right, Dad,” he muttered to himself. “Don’t let me regret opening this can of worms.”

When he touched the square, the room exploded in photographs. It wasn’t as extensive as the full Captain America file, but it was still enough to leave Tony turning circles, taking in the collection.

Candid, smiling shots of Steve -- pre- and post-transformation -- Howard and Peggy filled the landscape, mixed with group shots of the Howling Commandos, news clippings and a scrap of paper with a hand-drawn Captain America uniform and a scratchy S.R. in the corner. One series of photos caught his eye.

Steve and Howard were sitting a card table, post-serum, locked in an arm wrestling match. Steve was clearly toying with him. In the next shot, Peggy Carter entered the scene. With one arm wrapped around Steve’s shoulders she whispered (or something else, Tony inwardly giggled) into his ear. In the third, Tony could see Steve’s flushed face even in black-and-white as his arm laid flat on the table and Carter grinned behind him.

In the fourth and final shot, another man had entered the frame, clearly holding a camera pointed back at the scene in what might possibly be the earliest selfie known to man. J. Barnes was stitched into his fatigues and his tongue poked out of his mouth as he pointed behind him. Carter kissed Steve’s cheek and mingled her fingers with his as he sat at the table, but Howard had leapt up, a triumphant yell on his lips and his arms forever pumped in victory.

They were all like that. In the middle of one of the world’s worst wars, these idiots found fun and joy like only best friends could. And it hit Tony then just how much Steve had lost when he put Johann Schmidt’s plane of destruction down in the arctic, slept for 70 years and woke up to a world unlike any he’d ever known, completely alone.

Tony swept all the images away and pulled up schematics for the building.

“JARVIS, nothing’s going on the 75th floor, right?”

“No, sir.”

“Great,” his fingers furiously typed parameters into a field. “Why don’t you get a prototype for Project 1138 going up there.”

“Sir, that project is years from being ready-”

“JARVIS, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Just do your best.”

“And what will you be doing, sir?”

“Studying and sleeping,” Tony said, waving a pad in the air.

“Of course, sir.”

Tony laughed as he exited the lab. Tomorrow, he hoped, was going to be fun.


	2. The Morning After

The next morning, Tony headed to the common area with a yawn. He could already smell bacon and coffee.

“Good morning, Avengers,” he said with a smile as he entered. Steve sat on a bar stool, head in his hands and if possible sank just a little lower as Tony entered.

“You really don’t want to be so loud, right now,” Bruce said from the open kitchen.

“Aw, does someone have an America-sized hangover?” 

For being so relatively new to the 21st century, Steve had already perfected the side-eye and he was aiming it directly at Tony.

“I’m not talking to you right now,” he grumbled.

Tony couldn’t hold back a smile as he clapped a hand on Steve’s shoulder.

“You’ll forgive me,” he said. “And you know, a little hair of the dog-”

“Only delays the inevitable,” Bruce interrupted as he slid a plate in front of Steve.

“Ah, the greasy food myth,” Tony said as he swiped a piece of bacon from the plate. “You know there’s no scientific evidence that morning-after food cures a hangover.”

“Yeah, well, there’s something to be said for anecdotal evidence.”

“True. Hey, you taking requests, Short Order? Two eggs over medium with a side of toast, made from good ol American white bread, not that nutty, seedy health stuff you and Romanoff eat.”

“Uh-uh.” Bruce tossed a bag of bread at Tony as he headed out of the kitchen.

“What, you’ll cook for Cap but not me?”

“ _Cap’s_ had a rough night, courtesy of you,” Bruce said. “And I have an experiment in the lab I need to check on.”

“Come on, Banner,”

“You know where the eggs are...you do know where the eggs are, right?”

“Of course I know where the eggs are,” Tony waved Bruce away with one hand. “Go, do your experiment.” Bruce shook his head and walked away with a grin. As soon as he was out of eye- and earshot, Tony looked skyward. “JARVIS where are the eggs?”

“In the refrigerator, sir.”

“JARVIS!”

“My apologies, Captain Rogers,” JARVIS said at a noticeably lower volume. Tony eyed Steve as he walked to the refrigerator and pulled open the door.

“You know, I think that’s the first time you’ve talked to JARVIS like a person,” Tony said. Steve grunted, a sound Tony mostly ignored as he pulled open the fridge and gazed into its depths. “Eh, I’m not hungry.” He closed the door and turned back to Steve. “So, listen, when you’re feeling a little more super, meet me up on 75. Got something to show you.”

“Is it more alcohol?”

“Nope.”

“Then I’ll be there.” 

* * *

The elevator at Level 75 opened onto an enormous room. Most of the floor was open, and until the night before, Tony had no idea what he was going to use it for. But six hours, a tireless AI and two childhood robots later and the frame for a 20-foot cube was smack in the middle. All it needed was a little more work.

Tony got busy, laying cable around the bottom frame, snaking it up the corner poles and connecting an array of projectors together before running the entire rig to a bank of computers.

“Sir,” JARVIS said, “I’ve programmed the specifications you requested. The rendering should be complete shortly.”

“Great, JARVIS, thanks,” Tony said. Everything was nearly good to go. “What do you think J, is it going to work?”

“I suppose that depends on your definition of ‘work,’ ” JARVIS answered. “As I tried to say last night, your theory is sound but the full application is years from its desired potential.”

“Well, sometimes JARVIS, you’ve got to run with what you’ve got. Learned that one the hard way,” Tony muttered. “How long do you think we’ll have before the whole thing blows out??

“My estimation is 25 minutes.”

“Guess we’ll see just how quick a study Cap really is.”

The elevator dinged and when the doors opened, Steve stepped out, looking much more refreshed than he had an hour ago. Tony shook his head as he plugged the last cable in. Super soldier serum was a hell of a thing. Forget warriors, he was surprised the booze industry wasn’t angling to manufacture and market it.

“Feeling better?” he called over his shoulder.

“Much,” Steve said. “Sorry about before.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it.” Tony waved a hand at the remark and stepped out from behind the computers. Steve had stopped at the edge of the frame and was following it’s edges with his eyes.

“What’s all this?”

“This,” Tony said as he grabbed Steve by the shoulder and maneuvered him to the center of the cube, “is training.” Steve crinkled his brow as he looked around the area.

“I don’t…”

“JARVIS,” Tony said. “Hit it.”

The room’s equipment whirred to life and colored light blurred in and out of focus until the spaces between the frame slowly formed the cream-colored walls of a room lined with dark wainscot panels and old, evenly spaced photographs and portraits. Flag poles stood at the head of the room, one with an American flag, one with the flag of New York and two others Tony couldn’t identify at the distance. A few more machines sputtered to life, and several tables covered in white cloth appeared, pushed up against the walls, surrounded by folding chairs.

Steve turned circles, taking in the room. His confused expression eased to one of familiarity as a slight smile tugged at his lips. In the early days, before the Captain America tour started filling packed arenas and civic centers, he’d spent a lot of time in VFW halls, speaking closely and intimately with the family and friends of boys overseas. He was a comfort to them -- before the marketers perfected the war bond pitches and dancers learned their moves, that was -- and returning to the small-scale simplicity of it now in a world that seemed so much bigger and constantly moving was its own comfort to him.

“What is this?”

“JARVIS, phase two.”

More equipment showered dots from the ceiling, pulling them together until the dots formed the shape of a dozen couples. Men and women in the slacks with short-sleeve buttoned shirts and cinch-waisted dresses with flared skirts of the 1940s stood stock still, facing each other, hand in hand. 

Tony glanced around the room, too.

“A little flat, but not bad.”

“It’s amazing,” Steve said. “But I still don’t…”

“JARVIS, phase three.” The digital people began to move, stepping forward and backward to music that wasn’t there. “Time for dance lessons.” Steve turned wide-eyed to Tony.

“Oh, no,” he said. “No, thank you.”

“Oh, come on. Just last night you were whining that nobody’d want to date an old guy who can’t dance-”

“I’m not that old! Okay, well, technically I’m that old-”

“-and I’m offering you a remedy to one of those problems.”

“I don’t think so, Stark.”

“What, is it like a homophobia thing? I mean I get it, it’s not like your time was really up with the tolerance, but I gotta say, that’s not the best look today.”

“It’s not! I’m not a-”

“So it’s personal,” Tony said. “You just don’t want to dance with me.” For just the briefest of moments, Steve looked horrified, but the look was quickly replaced with a shrewd gaze. Good man. Even poor, out-of-time, naive Steve Rogers wasn’t falling for that blatant troll bait. “What’s the problem?”

Steve glanced around the room at the silently dancing couples. 

“People don’t dance like this anymore,” Steve said.

“Sure they do.”

“I’ve seen people dance, Stark,” Steve said. “It’s not like this.”

“Well, yeah, at clubs, but there are formal occasions too. Proms-”

“Are you going to throw me a prom, Stark?” Steve said. “What next? A 80-years-late-Super Sweet 16?”

“Sure, and after that I can pimp your ride and check out your crib,” Tony said. “Thousands of channels and 70 years of catching up to do and you’re watching old MTV?”

“Well, apparently video killed the radio star.” 

Tony burst out laughing as Steve continued staring at the room, taking in all the details. “But seriously, Tony,” he continued. “When?”

“Galas, balls -- you’re Captain America, I’m surprised the president hasn’t thrown one in your honor -- fundraisers. Oh! Fundraisers! That’s it; we’ll do one of those. JARVIS, compile of list of area charities. Baby hospitals, veterans groups, cute animals, that sort of thing. Send the top five neediest to Pepper. Tell her it’s for Steve.”

“JARVIS, don’t do that!”

“Ah! My AI. He listens to me first.”

“The list has been compiled and sent, sir.”

“See? Now you have to learn. So come on, Rogers, stop wasting life.”

Steve approached glumly, his hands crammed into his pockets.

“Okay, first, we need these,” Tony hooked his arms between Steve’s elbows and pulled until his hands were free. Tony’s hand stopped briefly at Steve’s waist. “Wait, no. You should probably lead,” Tony muttered before trading positions and placing his own hand on Steve’s shoulder, clasping their free hands together. “Now, we’re going to start with a simple waltz. It’s just right foot forward, left foot to the side and together, left foot back, making a square. 1-2-3, Lather, rinse, repeat.” Steve nodded. “And let’s go in 3-2-1.”

They both stepped.

“OW!”

“You said right foot forward!”

“I know, I know! My fault. Totally on me; I’m not used to following.”

“Yeah, no kidding.”

“I heard that. Let’s try again in 3-2-1.”

The first step went fine, but on the second, Steve’s foot went to the left, but his body shifted right. On other tries, he made it through one choppy pass and completely failed on the next, moving right when he should move left or forward when he should go back -- the end result usually being a foot on Tony’s toe or an awkward jerk of the arm -- and his apologetic “sorry” was shaping up to be the word of the day.

“I don’t get it,” Tony said finally. “I’ve seen you bounce a glorified Frisbee off of three trees, taking out five guys as you do it, and have it _come back to you_ , but this is out of the question?”

“This is different!”

“It’s three steps! Here, watch them,” Tony said, pointing to the holographic couple next to them. Steve zeroed in on a pair of brown oxfords and Susie Classics with bobby socks as they stepped forward, to the side, and back. “Now count it out,” Tony continued. “1-2-3.”

“1-2-3,” Steve whispered along as he watched the couple make three passes.

“And now us,” Tony said. “1-2-3.”

Steve’s footwork was coming along. It was slow, but passable as he gripped Tony’s hand and stared at their feet, counting quietly with each step. 

“Good,” Tony said. “Now maybe try it without literally counting.” Steve quieted, but his lips still moved slightly with each step. “And I’m just saying, my eyes are up here, soldier.”

Steve jerked his head up to look at Tony, but the disruption also sent him off balance. He missed a step and landed directly on Tony’s foot.

“Ow.”

“Sorry.”

“That’s okay. Better me than some piece of arm candy in an open-toed heel. You want them taking off more than their shoes at the end of the night, and that’s probably not going to happen if their toes are black and blue.” Tony paused, and shifted his eyes forward. “Well, some might. But probably not if they think you’re spending the whole night looking down their dress.” He paused again. “Well...again...some might.”

“Stark.”

“That’s what we need to do! We need to find you a bad girl. With the right kind, I can see the headlines now, ‘Captain America tames wild party tartlet.’ “

“You know, Stark, that’s not a very nice way to talk about women.”

“I’m just saying, you wanna get laid sometime this century” -- Steve flushed just slightly -- “and you’ve got an image to maintain, that requires a specific type of girl.”

“Dating shouldn’t be about image, Tony,” Steve said. “And-” he stopped midsentence and cocked his head. “Are you serious right now? Or are you just messing with me?”

“Steve, there are four, maybe five, things I’m serious about, and guarantee you, this conversation is not one of them,” Tony said. “What I’m trying to do is keep you out of your head, and off of my feet. And hey, it’s working!”

Steve’s eyes went wide as he glanced down at their feet and back up to Tony and around them. With some gentle nudges that he hadn’t even noticed, they’d stepped and turned to the opposite end of the cube-room and were surrounded by different people.

“Hey! We’re dancin’!” he said with a smile.

“Yeah, we are!” Tony said. “Quick, spin me!”

“What?”

Tony took a modicum of control so Steve could see the move without actually doing it, and when he returned, their bodies were just a little closer.

“JARVIS, how about some music?” A Schubert sonata twinkled from speakers as Steve and Tony continued to dance, and Tony showed him a few ways to make the classic positioning a little more modern.

As Tony suspected, Steve’s dancing woes were all in his head, born from a scrawny kid’s lifetime of insecurity. But now, with the basic waltz more-or-less mastered, they moved on to other dances and styles. And it seemed the more complex the footwork, the easier time Steve had with it. Even the lindyhop -- a fast-paced swing of the period that Tony studied and added to the program as a lark -- Steve was able to watch the digital dancers for a pass-through and pick up the basics in no time, leading Tony across the dance floor like he’d been doing it his whole life.

Tony lost track of how long they danced. His attention was drawn to Steve who had smiled more since they started this exercise than Tony had seen in all the time they’d known each other. His grin was loose and easy and largely unseen outside of Howard’s 1940s photographs.

It made Tony smile as they danced until they were out of breath with hearts pounding. JARVIS turned the music back to the slow Schubert. Tony’s hand found its way back to Steve’s shoulder as Steve’s settled at his waist. 

They caught their breaths in a perfectly timed and executed box-step that was so far from where they started that it was itself captivating, and Tony didn’t even notice when the walls of his simulation faded and the people began to disappear.


End file.
